Retail fragmentation vs. urban livability: Applying ecological methods in urban geography research

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Retail affects city livability; it is one of the urban elements that draws individuals to the city and it has a direct effect on inhabitants' quality of life. Neighboring municipalities often struggle to attract both consumers and investors to the local retail centers. Therefore, retail development has become an arena of competition of municipalities over retail entrepreneurs; consequently, municipalities occasionally facilitate planning and developing these specific land uses. Overcrowded and fragmented (or over-splitting) planned retail centers on the municipal level are considered one of the widespread outcomes in Israel, mostly due to real-estate pressures. This implies developing retail centers in locations which might create unsuccessful centers, as well as imposing burdens on neighboring land use, and on mobility and accessibility in the city.The concept of a fragmented urban area is actually borrowed from ecology, but it is not the only ecological concept adopted in the study of urban environments. Various studies explain and address the urban environment as an ecological system, such as city as organism and metabolism of cities. This paper takes the approach of adopting elements from ecology research into urban geography research to study spatial fragmentation. The research will analyze the spatial location of retail centers on the municipal level according to the different dimensions constructing habitat fragmentation in ecology research, using a GIS system that facilitates the spatial analysis of landscape patches, and using least-cost modeling often in support of habitat modeling, biodiversity conservation and forest management.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)292-299
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Geography
Volume35
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012

Keywords

  • Fragmentation
  • GIS
  • Least-cost modeling
  • Retail
  • Urban livability

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Forestry
  • General Environmental Science
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

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